Lost and found

Page Tools

Related

A filmmaker returns to South Africa seeking justice for her mother's rape. Nicole Brady reports.

When you think of people vulnerable to rape, your mother is probably the last person to spring to mind. The sexual assault of older women, however, occurs with frightening regularity, says filmmaker Cathy Henkel. She knows. It happened to her mother and she made a film about the aftermath.

The Man Who Stole My Mother's Face begins 14 years after her mother was raped in her home in South Africa.

The attacker was a middle-class white teenager, never brought to justice, though Henkel's mother, Laura, identified him from a school photograph.

The film follows Henkel's quest for justice as she travels to South Africa to persuade police to reopen the case, but it is as much about her mother's recovery. Henkel sees the film as a catalyst, a way to relieve her mother from the deep depression that crushed her once-exuberant personality. Despite migrating from South Africa to live near her daughter in Australia, Laura remains severely traumatised at the film's beginning. Henkel describes making the film as a "tough journey".

"There was always that anxiety," she says, "that I'd make it worse or there was even the risk that the guy would kill me or try and silence me because there was a lot at stake for him. [Convicted rapists in South Africa get mandatory life sentences.]

AdvertisementAdvertisement

"But it's helped my mother and my family so much and that in itself has been amazing and beyond my wildest expectations. My mother is so out in the world now ... she's regained her trust in humanity."

From the single idea of pursuing her mother's rapist, the film broadens to encompass many themes. It's about family relationships, human rights, healing, the high incidence of sexual assault in South Africa and the right of victims to be heard and believed.

Central to the story is South African journalist and sexual-assault survivor Charlene Smith. When Henkel is wondering whether to persist with her quest, Smith advises: "If you want the person to get caught and you want the person to go to jail, you have to prepare yourself for an unbelievably traumatic fight ... You have to fight with the police. You have to fight with the prosecutors. You have to fight with the medical officers. You have to fight with every single person."

It is a message that has proved inspirational for the many people who have seen the feature-length version of the film at festivals around the world. "Afterwards I am always inundated. People queue to speak to me. At all the festivals many women have come up saying, 'You've really told my story. Thank you. I need to go and get justice. I was raped and I've never spoken about it'. That's the most common response."

That the ABC won't screen the 74-minute version of the film (it is showing a 58-minute version) frustrates Henkel. "The longer one is a better film and has more depth and more of the universal storyline ... It is a real shame that after the success of [the] longer-form documentary from America, here filmmakers are not being encouraged or supported to make feature-length documentaries."

And is Henkel satisfied that she achieved justice? "There's a lot at stake for him [the alleged rapist] now and in a way the longer the thing drags out the more he's paying the price for what he's done; he's having to face up to it ... I'm much more focused on thinking about the healing process for my mother and for other people who have been through this and what positive things have come out of the film rather than thinking about him. But I do think a form of justice has been achieved."

And no matter the outcome of the police investigation, Henkel finds comfort in knowing her film will screen on South African TV later this year.

One way or another, she thinks, her mother's rapist will be exposed for what he is.

The Man Who Stole My Mother's Face airs on the ABC on Wednesday at 9.30pm.